Customer Reviews

The Little Island (Dell Picture Yearling)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You may not recognize the author's name. But do you know that Golden MacDonald was a pen name for Margaret Wise Brown of Goodnight Moon fame? The text of this book captures the subtle rhythms of her appreciation for nature, and the connections that all beings and objects in nature have with one another. The book also won a Caldecott Medal for its shimmering and tingling watercolors. The images create a mood of the perpetual essence of nature, and our connections to one another through the blue-green and grey palettes used.

Children's books often contain more themes and important messages than 400 page novels. The Little Island is one of the great masterpieces in achieving that remarkable accomplishment.

The book covers the four seasons as they affect the little island and the plants and animals that visit the island. To show the on-going nature of the process, the book's time line expands beyond a single year.

The island is described as being:

"A part of the world

and a world of its own

all surrounded by the bright blue sea."

On the island, you will connect with birds, tides, clouds, fish, fogs, spiders, flowers, lobsters, seals, kingfishers, gulls, wild strawberries, butterflies, herring, mackerel, seaweed, pears, a black crow, a little kitten on a boat, trees, bushes, rocks, moths, an owl, a storm, snow, the sun, wind, and rain.

The connection to Donne is made in the context of the kitten visitor to the island. "May be I am an island too . . . a little fur Island in the air."

The connections run in all directions. The kitten learns from the island that the island is connected to all of the other land. When the kitten doubts the island about this point, the island suggests asking a fish. The kitten gets the answer there, but cannot get firm proof. He just has to take the fish's word for it. This is an obvious allusion to the element of faith in our understanding of the spiritual nature of our connections to one another. Having the kitten fish is also an allusion to the famous Biblical reference of teaching a man to fish, rather than providing him with fish.

The book uses other connections to make the point. Many animals need the little island to go through their annual cycle, such as the seals who raise their young on the island. Many of the insects and birds come from the mainland across the sea. The weather affects the sea, the island, and the mainland alike . . . as do the tides.

Some of the illustrations are so beautiful that you will want to carry them with you always. My favorite was of the kingfishers.

The story will be strengthened by what you choose to share with you child as you read the book out loud. There are opportunities here to share scientific facts, spiritual connections, and to explain the mutual dependency that occurs in nature.

I suspect that many people's lives have been enriched by the warm connections this book makes. Shouldn't your children and grandchildren have the same opportunity?

See the forest and the trees!

"The Little Island" must have been around for 50 years now. It's a powerful allegory for the connectedness of all things, with a wonderful, lyrical saturation of the text with imagery from nature. The illustrations emphasize the innocence of the message and the main characters, which are a cat and a fish. It's a book about knowing ("the cat's eyes were alive with the knowledge of it") and the impossibility of knowing directly ("answer me this or I'll eat you up," says the cat) the answers to the most important questions. This is a perspective changing book -- it changed mine at age 6.

Even if this book had no words, I would still love it, because the illustrations are that brilliant!!~~
The wording is quite clever.
This story tells about a little island, and the changing seasons it lives through.
This island is home to many creatures, and serves many, many purposes.
Lobsters crawl underneath the island to find dark hiding places.
Seals come to have and raise babies.
Birds come to build nests and lay eggs.
In spring, flowers bloom on this little island. In summer, strawberries ripen.
One day, a family on a boat stops at the island for an afternoon picnic. With them, there is a black kitty.
The kitty observes:
"My what a small island. You are as small as big is big."
The island converses with this kitty, and teaches him that everything is a wonderful part of this world, and equally unique and important.
The kitty learns a secret from a fish- 'All land is one land under the sea'.
In autumn, the pears ripen on the lone pear tree on the island, and finally winter comes with snow.
It was good to be a little island. A part of the world, and a world of its own.

I usually love books like this, so I am sorry to have it give it only three stars. I agree with the other reviewer who said it had an ADD-like quality. It does, which is a shame because it could be rewritten to be a perfect story.

The main problem of the book is that you spend the first half of the book thinking that it will be about the island changing with the seasons. It is very similar to "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton. It is very poetic and descriptive of different animals and plants that change with the seasons.

Then all of a sudden a nonsensical tale about a kitten coming on a boat takes over. There are people with the kitten but we never hear about them. Then the kitten exchanges a couple lines with the island which don't really make sense. ("Maybe I am a little island too, said the kitten"). I was sort of ok with the change in theme until the part where the kitten flies high into the air and looks down on the island from the sky... totally random, has no real purpose. He's down the next moment and the abstruse dialogue between the kitten and island continues about the kitten's feet and whether the island is part of the world or not. It doesn't make any sense for about 5 pages until finally the concluding scientific point is made that the island is actually surrounded by ocean, so from a fish's point of view, it is indeed "connected" to the world around it. In other words, water unites all the world together.

I read the reviewer who connected it to John Donne, and while it's a neat connection in retrospect, you're not guided to this connection in the text. The secret that we're all connected to the big world somehow is Donne-like. But the kitten doesn't talk about his relationships or loneliness or anything. You'd have to read a lot into the text in order to see this.

My kids were a little creeped out by the illustrations of the kitten too. He's not cute and he has huge spooky turquoise eyes, threatening to eat the fish up if they don't tell him the secret of the island.

That said, there is a wonderful point about faith made by the kitten, which makes the book worth reading. Kids who love the idea of secrets, faith, mysteries, and trusting people about things they don't know will like this part a lot. Again, I really don't think they're going to get the existential part, though, about us all being connected. I think they're barely able to understand the factual point that an island is connected to the world because it is surrounded by water that touches other lands.

What's weirder is, after the kitten part is over, the author goes back to a scientific description of the island again, about seasons and nightlife. It's kind of strange. It makes a nice bookend to the beginning, but it makes the interlude about the kitten seem even more non-sequitor. Maybe the author thought the technique was just interesting writing, but if it was sort of hard to follow as an adult, I am not sure what my children made of it.

Overall the book has a childlike feel, and sort of a haunting quality about it. One reviewer described it as "zen" and that might be true... or "mystical." It is probably worth renting from the library before purchasing to see if it's your thing. The story SEEMS as though it is a perfect fit with Margaret Wise Brown or Virginia Lee Burton, but in the end it disappoints. As much as I wanted to love it, it was just too strange.

This story is very cute and "zen like". I liked it personally as an adult and as a mom who tries to teach the harmonious aspect of nature. However there is some strange situations (like a kitty coming to the island and capturing a fish briefly only to hear the story of the island and let him go) and then the kitty is gone and you really don't know whats happened.The book is a little "ADD" that way and 4 1/2 year olds like my daughter are very keen on a clear cut story...this book had her asking lots of questions and didn't interest her too much. It is certainly not one she picks out for me to read. It's a cute story but a hard concept for a young child to grasp

My 2 1/2 year old has loved this book for the past 6 months. Don't sell your toddler's abilities to appreciate great language & cadence short.

The Little Island by Golden MacDonald and illustrated by Leonard Weisgard has been around since at least 1946; had reprints in 1974 and any number of bootlegged, illegal copies made and sold throughout the years. There is a reason for this! This book is actually good! The story, more about that later, is beautifully done and the art work is different enough; quirky enough to appeal to children, and I might add open minded adults, down through the years.

The story is rather timeless and at first glance rather simple. We have a very small island inhabited by various creatures and plants and sea critters. The little island is subject to the changes in the seasons. This little island is actually a microcosm of our planted, and even the most thick witted can spot this fact after only a few pages. Kids, unlike some adults, are quite a bit brighter than we give them credit for; more open to the use of the possible and impossible, and pick up on this fact rather quickly. The author's prose is actually comforting in its rhythm and cadence. Following is an example:

The morning was quiet
on the Island
with only the spiders sailing their webs
against a gentle wind.

Boats sailed to the little island
from far away
and herring and mackerel
leaped out of the water
all silver in the moon light.
The seaweed squeaked at low tide
and the little green pears grew on the pear tree.
A black crow flew over.

When you read these words, simple as they are, and then shut your eyes, you can actually visualize the little island just setting there, doing its thing, and doing what islands do best.

The story continues with a visit from a boat which caries with it a small cat. The cat, a curious creature, explores the island, making cat observations, as cats will. The story of the island and its inhabitants are more or less shown and told through the cats eyes. The child learns of the trees; the pear tree, fish, lobsters, insects, flowers and birds. There is an absolutely delicious picture of two Kingfishers that are an absolute delight. It does not take much of a leap to understand, or at least gather a feeling of the circle of nature in this work. When the cat leaves with the boat, the island continues to be an island and all is the same. There is an eternal flow about this work that is quite comforting.

Now very few have been able to say a critical word as to the writing ability of MacDonald. There are those that are not all that happy with the art work of Weisgard though. The reader MUST remember when these pictures were made and put them in the proper context of the times. They must also gaze at the paintings through the eyes of a child rather than that of a "sophisticated" adult art critic; no, no, no...this is a big mistake to do so! Keep in mind that this was written and illustrated for children; young children at that. It is a big mistake to judge a children's book by either it's age or worse yet, it's appeal to the logical minded adult.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

My 23 month old son calls this the "The Kitty Book". He has loved this book for months. The illustrations are beautiful and the wording poetic, for the most part. The overuse of "and" is a fact in the book, I freely admit.

This book introduces a child to the seasons, to weather, to migratory movements of birds, lobsters, and seals (temporary residents to the island).

I think the most noteworthy thing this book brings to a child is the conversation between the kitten and island. On the surface it defines what an island is, saying plainly that although we can't see it, is connected to "all land". When the kitten says that he is connected to all land, but by jumping is a "fur island in the air" there are philosophical overtones, especially since the idea of faith is the next conversation that happens. I take away the idea, beautifully crafted, that everyone is connected to this world and to each other and that although we can't see it, we should have faith that it is true.

Since my young toddler identifies this book as "The Kitty Book", even though the kitten does not dominate the text, I think the message's heart is clearly seen to belong with the dialogue the kitten participates in.

I love to read this book just as much as my son loves me to read it to him.

The book tells how a little island changes in the seasons. A cat visits the island and wonders how it is connected to the land. The cat captures a fish and says "I'll eat you up if you don't tell me how the island is connected to the land." The fish tells the cat a surprising thing about nature. A big storm hits the island, but not much damage is done.

The book was very good. My favorite part was when the cat visited the island because the cat found out how the island was connected to the land. I felt happy the cat learned something new. I was worried the cat might drown when the fish told it to go under water. The illustrations are very brightly colored. I think this is a good choice for the Caldecott Honor.

_The Little Island_ has always been and continues to be my favorite children's book -- and perhaps my favorite book of all (close second: _Kees_ by Marian King). The brief story of tranquil connectedness and of faith passes like a gentle wave in the author's magical description of a quiet, beautiful, eternal little place. After 4 decades, each trip back to the island still always brings a smile and a dreamy sigh.